5 tips to make Spring cleaning easy

Happy first week of Spring! I'm so sorry to my family and friends on the East Coast who are still neck-deep in snow, but it's been beautiful here in southern Ontario and it feels like it's time for Spring cleaning. Your Spring cleaning is more likely with a shovel than a broom? Well, perhaps a little de-cluttering and refreshing indoors will help you feel a little cheerier!

I started my Spring refresh this weekend by organizing and cleaning out some closets, and thought I'd pass along my top 5 tips to make Spring cleaning easier. If you do just these 5 things over one or two weekends, it will make your day-day go much smoother, and your home will be healthier to boot.

1. Ditch the chemical cleaners once and for all. I've talked about this lots before, but if you haven't gone to vinegar and water yet, do it now. It's the one simple switch that will make your life better. Get a big jug of vinegar and keep it and a spray bottle on hand. Mix vinegar, water and little eco-friendly dish detergent together and you've got a cleaner that works for your kitchen, bathroom and floors. I pull it out every day and use it with a microfibre cloth to clean off my counter tops. You can also add a few drops of orange and lavender essential oils to disinfect and leave an invigorating scent.

2. Replace your shower curtain with a PEVA liner plus a natural cotton or linen outer curtain. Check out this post to see why PEVA liners are so much healthier than vinyl. If you've already done this, wash your shower curtains as part of your Spring cleaning.

3. Get down on your hands and knees and scrub your entryway floor and floorboards with your vinegar and essential oil mix. It will disinfect and smell great as you come in the door. Wash or air out a large throw mat or two to have in the entry for shoes - and always leave shoes at the door. Just thinking about the dirt and toxins they track inside makes me want to scrub the floor all over again!

via

4. Do a 3x3: de-clutter by get rid of three things in each of these areas, and then organizing what's left:

- entryway
-clothes closet
-bathroom vanity drawers/medicine cabinet

Organizing and minimizing the "stuff" in just these three areas (you can tackle other areas during Fall cleaning!) will make your everyday less stressful. Toss things that are broken, empty, have holes in them, or that are taking up space because you never use them (why do I keep mismatched socks anyway?). Then, get out bins, baskets, bowls and boxes (use cardboard food boxes and cover them in pretty paper) to organize like with like.

via

5. Clean the air. If you don't have many plants, add a couple of new ones to your home. Open the windows. And use essential oils (through a diffuser or a linen spray) to clear out toxins. It will give you a boost of energy and calm you at the same time. Which means you just may want to organize some more! No? That's just me? Hmm...

Happy Spring everyone.